Leading 49-42 with 4:47 left in the game Thursday night at home against Bishop State, the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawk basketball team was outscored 11-3 by the Wildcats to suffer a 53-52 conference loss.
“Too many turnovers,” JDCC head coach Allen Gainer said. “The first four possessions of the game we turned the ball over. I think we turned it over seven of the first nine and throughout the whole game. One trip we would score and the other we would turn it over and we lose by one. We gave them the game. They are a very good team, but we handed it to them. We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball. We lost focus and they gave us a chance down there when they missed a free throw. We could not get the rebound though. We just were not mentally prepared to play tonight.”
JDCC, who fell to 2-6 overall and to 0-1 in conference play, trailed Bishop State 27-26 after one half of play.
The Warhawks trailed the Wildcats of BSCC 7-2 at the 14:24 mark of the first half. Down by five, JDCC used a 12-0 run to grab a 14-7 lead at the 9:15 mark.
Later in the half, with JDCC up 25-19 with 2:07 left to play before the halftime break, the Warhawks fell to an 8-0 run by the Wildcats to fall behind 27-25 with 11.6 seconds left in the first half. Bishop State would go on and outscore JDCC 8-1 after the Warhawks’ 25-19 lead to hold the one-point lead at the half.
In the second half, the two teams played each other back-and-forth until the Warhawks built there 49-42 lead with 4:47 left in the game.
From that point, Bishop State used a 9-0 run to grab a 51-49 lead with 2:18 left in the game.
Down by two points, JDCC’s Chris Oden connected for one of two free throws with 1:16 left in the game to cut the lead to 51-50.
Forced to foul late in the game, JDCC sent Bishop State to the line with 26.4 seconds left for a one-and-one free throw. Bishop State missed the free throw but grabbed the rebound. The Warhawks then got a stop but missed a shot on their end of the court.
After a Bishop State timeout with 20.6 left in the game, the Wildcats made two free throws to take a 53-50 lead with 10.8 left in the game.
Darren Wilson put JDCC within one point of Bishop State after making a shot with 3.9 seconds left in the game to cut the lead to 53-52.
After a JDCC timeout and a quick Warhawk foul, Bishop would miss two free throws with 2.5 seconds left in the game after being sent to the line for a double bonus free throw shot. A Warhawk rebound was grabbed and JDCC called a timeout with 1.6 seconds left in the game.
The Warhawks then missed a shot at the buzzer as the Wildcats earned the win by one point.
JDCC shot 8-for-13 from the free throw line in the loss while Bishop State was 5-for-11. The Warhawks were 4-for-6 from the line in the first half and 4-for-7 in the second half while Bishop State shot 1-for-3 in the first half and 4-for-8 in the second half.
JDCC shot four 3-pointers in the game with all coming in the first half. Bishop State had two in the game with both coming in the second half.
Leading the way for JDCC in the loss was Michael Hutchins with 15 points. Christian Jones added nine points and Adrian Rich had eight points in the loss. Mikwese Claybourne chipped in seven points along with Chris Oden. while Sherman Rountree, Quan Threatt and Darren Wilson all had two points each.
Jones led with six rebounds. Threatt led with four assists. Wilson, Hutchins and Oden all finished with two blocks in the loss while Hutchins and Rich both led with two steals each.
The Warhawks committed 23 turnovers in the loss.
JDCC shot 39.2 percent from the field in the loss (20-for-51) and was 4-for-13 from the 3-point area for 30.8 percent.
JDCC will play a makeup game with Southern Union from earlier in the season Saturday at 3 p.m. on the road. The Warhawks will return to conference play Monday when they travel to Enterprise for a 5:30 p.m. tip.
JDCC will return home on Tuesday, Jan. 21, when they host Chattahoochee Valley for a conference game. Game time is set for 7 p.m. in Brewton.